A new fragrance from custom cologne crafter Air Aroma captures the uniquely appealing scent of a freshly unwrapped MacBook, iPad or Apple TV.
Scheduled to be unveiled at the upcoming De Facto Standard art exhibit in Melbourne, Australia, the latest cologne from the aptly-named Air Aroma is modeled after the smell that comes wafting out of the box once you’ve popped open a brand new MacBook Pro. A group of three Aussie artists teamed with Air Aroma to “scientifically recreate the smell of an Apple unboxing,” using sophisticated technology and their own inherent sniffing skills to duplicate “the smell of the plastic wrap covering the box, printed ink on the cardboard, the smell of paper and plastic components within the box and of course the aluminum laptop which has come straight from the factory where it was assembled in China.”
Think of it as the proverbial “new car smell,” only geekier and with strong hints of the aerosolized incarnation of a smug grin.
As Fashionably Geek points out however, the as-yet-unnamed cologne will likely be impossible to find in stores. Currently it’s only scheduled to appear at the art show, and Air Aroma has no plans for a large-scale retail release. The show is slated to run at Melbourne’s West Space gallery from April 20 to May 12, after which the smell will only be found in Cupertino, California and within the stylish, sealed packaging of Apple’s flagship laptop line.
Though the official Air Aroma blog offers no solid answer to the bold-font “WHY?” currently playing across your bemused face, it does offer a surprisingly in-depth explanation of how this cologne was created.
The process of creating this signature fragrance started with an initial meeting with our client to understand the concept and desired effect of the fragrance. Once this was established, the ingredients for the fragrance had to be sourced. The scent requested by our client was quite unusual so we contacted our fragrance suppliers in the South of France to send over samples of fragrances with the aroma of glue, plastic, rubber and paper. Air Aroma fragrance designers then used these samples as ingredients to create a range of signature blend fragrances. The blends, each with unique recipes were then tested in the Air Aroma laboratory until a final fragrance was ultimately selected.
To replicate the smell a brand new unopened Apple was sent to our fragrance lab in France. From there, professional perfume makers used the scents they observed unboxing the new Apple computer to source fragrance samples. On completion the laptop was sent back to Australia, travelling nearly 50,000kms and returned to our clients together with scent of an Apple Macbook Pro.
It’s an interesting process, no doubt, but again, it does little to explain the purpose behind the scent. Thus, as with all such things, we’re forced to conclude that its purpose is pure artistic expression. It’s art guys, you aren’t supposed to get it.
